Posted by David Taylor, a resident of the Ventura neighborhood, on Jun 14, 2007 at 1:15 pm

"Both Gunn and Palo Alto high schools held their graduations yesterday."

That sentence makes absolutely no sense in this brief report - unless there is a connection between the graduations and the boom. But no evidence for such a connection is given. The sentence is not attributed to police, so we must assume that it is purely the reporter's speculation. In other words, that sentence projects either an absurd non sequitir - or a speculative insinuation that borders on slander.

In either case, I would hope accepted standards of journalism will prevail, and lead Palo Alto Online to correct this report immediately.

Posted by Parent, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 14, 2007 at 4:08 pm

In what may be a coincidence, both Paly and Gunn have out of town parties for their graduates.

Posted by Max, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Jun 14, 2007 at 5:53 pm

The boom was incredibly loud, even people who live a mile away from Seale Park heard it and said it was loud. Seems a little too loud to be a firecracker, but I could be wrong....

Posted by David Taylor, a resident of the Ventura neighborhood, on Jun 14, 2007 at 8:27 pm

Thankfully the report has been updated, with the phrase "In what may be a coincidence" prepended to the sentence "Both Gunn and Palo Alto high schools held their graduations yesterday".

This statement still reflects the reporter's unsupported speculation (and thus the need for it is questionable), but at least the insubstantial nature of the connection is now declared.

Posted by RS, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Jun 14, 2007 at 9:03 pm

Perhaps they could refer to to their speculation as

The big bang theory. ;^)